The 2012 Summer Olympics marked Anuradha Cooray's second appearance in the Olympic Games after placing 30th at the 2004 Men's Olympic marathon.[3] At 34, he was the oldest competitor to represent Sri Lanka at the London Summer Games.[5] Cooray met the "B" qualification standard for the Games by recording a time of two hours, 17 minutes and 50 seconds at the 2012 London Marathon.[10] Leading into the Olympics he trained in the English town of Aylesbury with coach Nick Taylor.[11] In an interview with The Sunday Times before the Games, Cooray said he was aware it would be a difficult task to compete against the leading marathon runners in the world but aimed to finish in the top fifteen positions.[12] He competed in the event on 12 August, finishing 55th out of 85 runners,[n 1] with a time of 2 hours, 20 minutes and 41 seconds.[13] Afterwards Cooray spoke of his enjoyment of the Olympics; although he criticised the marathon course for its sharp turns, he said he was proud of his achievement.[14]
Competing at her first Olympics at the age of 24, Christine Merrill was the sole female participant to run for Sri Lanka in athletics competition.[15] She qualified for the women's 400 metres hurdles by using a wildcard because her personal best time of 56.83 seconds, set at the 2011 Asian Athletics Championships in Kobe, was 0.17 seconds slower than the "B" qualifying standard for her event.[16] Before the Olympics Merrill said her target was to reach the semi-finals by pacing herself; although acknowledging the difficulty of doing so, she said she would work hard to achieve her objective.[17] She competed in the fifth heat of the first round on 5 August, finishing ninth (and last) of all athletes, with a time of 57.15 seconds. Overall, Merrill finished 30th out of 41 runners,[n 2] and was 1.3 seconds slower than the slowest athlete in her heat to advance to the semi-finals.[18] After completing her heat, she wrote on Facebook that her day was one she would not forget and thanked everyone for sharing the moment with her: "The roar of the crowd (was) so loud it made my heart echo. The bounce of the rock-hard track. The feeling of the Olympic Spirit."[19]
Key
Note–Ranks given for track events are within the athlete's heat only
Niluka Karunaratne reached the elimination stage of the men's badminton singles before elimination.
Taking part in his first Olympic Games at the age of 27, Niluka Karunaratne was notable for carrying the Sri Lankan flag at the opening and closing ceremonies.[5][7][9] He attained qualification for the Games due to his cumulative performance between 2 May 2011 and 29 April 2012, ranking him 47th in the Badminton World Federation standing. This allocated him a spot in the governing body's qualification list.[11][20] Before the Games Karunarante stated to Daily News he would take the tournament on a match-by-match basis, and that while he was happy to represent his country, he was aware of the competitiveness of his opponents.[21] He was drawn in Group C of the men's singles tournament on 30 July and faced world eighth-ranked Kenichi Tago of Japan. Karunaratne took advantage of Tago's slow pace and unpreparedness to win 21–18, 21–16 at the Wembley Arena.[22] He did not progress into the quarter-finals after a defeat to India's Parupalli Kashyap 14–21, 21–15, 9–21 in a closely fought match.[23]
Also aged 27, Thilini Jayasinghe was the oldest female athlete to compete for Sri Lanka at the London Summer Games.[5] She had previously competed in the 2008 Summer Olympics.[3] Jayasinghe qualified for the Games after the withdrawal of a South African badminton singles player led to a quota spot being re-allocated to Sri Lanka because of her world ranking of 109.[11] She said before her event that she was "happy" to enter her second Olympic Games and would endeavour to reach the second round.[17] Jayasinghe was placed in Group M of the women's singles badminton tournament on 29 July and was drawn against Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand. Inthanon made Jayasinghe vulnerable to attack and defeated the Sri Lankan player 21–13 in the first game. She continued strongly and beat Jayasinghe 21–5 in the second game to secure the victory.[24] In her second group match against Portugal's Telma Santos, Jayasinghe was eliminated from contention from a 21-9 and 21–11 defeat.[25]
Mangala Samarakoon was the only member of the Sri Lankan team at the London Olympics to represent his country in shooting, and competed in the men's 10 metre air file and 50 metre rifle prone events.[11] He entered the games using a re-allocated quota from the International Shooting Sport Federation by achieving five points more than the minimum Minimum Qualification Score of 587 points. It was also due to his status as Sri Lanka's top shooter.[6][11] He spoke of his happiness at qualifying for the Olympics his objective to improve his personal best record.[17] On 30 July Samarakoon competed in the qualification round of the men's 10 metre air rifle contest. He finished 45th out of 47 shooters with a score of 583 points. Samarakoon was eliminated from the tournament since he scored 13 points fewer than the two lowest-scoring qualifying finalists.[26] Four days later Samarakoon participated in the men's 50 metre rifle prone qualification round. He finished 47th out of 50 athletes with a score of 585 points. Samarakoon scored ten fewer points than the lowest-scoring shooters who advanced to the final.[27]
Competing in the men's 100 metre backstroke at the age of 20, Heshan Unamboowe was the youngest male athlete to compete on Sri Lanka's behalf at the London Games.[5] He had not participated in any previous Summer Olympics.[28] Unamboowe qualified for the games by using a universality place from the sport's governing body FINA because his fastest time of 57.47 seconds was 0.97 seconds slower than the "B" (FINA/Olympic Invitation Times) qualifying standard for his event.[29][30] Unamboowe trained at Nunawading Swimming Club in Melbourne to prepare for the Olympics.[6] Before the Games he said he was feeling "excited" but "nervous" and wanted to record a new personal best time: "As a kid I used to watch all these world class swimmers at past Olympics games and I knew I could do something special, and now my dream has come true."[28] Unamboowe was drawn in the first heat on 29 July, and finished second out of three swimmers with a time of 57.94 seconds. He finished 42nd out of 43 competitors overall, and was 3.42 seconds slower than the slowest swimmer to make the semi-final.[31] After his participation ended, he spoke of a pre-existing shoulder injury that was aggravated, and related physiotherapy he underwent prior to the games upon: "All I wanted initially was to better the Sri Lanka record", he said. "But that did not come my way as I could not keep the pace in the second half. I swam the first 50m well but could not accelerate in the last 50m."[32]
At 18, Reshika Udugampola was the youngest person to represent Sri Lanka at the London Olympic Games.[5] She was making her first appearance in the Summer Games.[11] Udugampola qualified for the Games through one of FINA's universality places because her fastest time of one minute and 4.23 seconds was 7.69 seconds slower than the "B" (FINA/Olympic Invitation Times) qualifying standard for the women's 100 metre freestyle.[29][30] Like Unamboowe, Udugampola trained at Nunawading Aquatic Club in Melbourne before the Games.[11] Prior to leaving for the Games, she spoke to the press about her excitement over taking part in London and called it "a once in a lifetime chance and we may never get it again. ... London is going to be something different. I’ve been training in Australia and I’m aiming for a national record, I don’t know if I will get it but I’m going to focus on that.”[28] Udugampola participated in heat two on 1 August, finishing sixth out of seven athletes, with a time of one minute and 4.93 seconds.[33] Overall she finished 44th out of 48 swimmers,[n 3] and was 10.5 seconds slower than the slowest athlete to advance to the semi-final.[33]
